Circa

Disclaimer

Please consider this a temporary review until a proper one can be done after the hotel opens in December 2020. For now, the casino and restaurants are open.

Introduction

The casino portion of the Circa opened to the public on October 28, 2020. The hotel portion is scheduled to open two months later, on December 28.

It is the first new hotel/casino development in downtown Las Vegas since 1980. It is located on an entire block bounded by Fremont Street, Ogden Street, Main Street, and First Street. Previously located there was the Las Vegas Club, Glitter Gulch strip club, and the small Mermaids casino. Derek Stevens, co-owner of the Golden Gate and D, purchased all three of those properties, demolished them, and constructed the Circa from scratch.

Table Games

The main casino floor offers blackjack, craps, roulette, baccarat, Face Up Pai Gow, Free Bet Blackjack, and Ultimate Texas Hold ‘Em. Some pits have traditionally-dressed dealers and other have attractive female dealers in the same “party pit” outfits as at the Golden Gate, across the street, except blue instead of black. Here is some information about the table game rules:

Blackjack: On the main casino floor the rules are 6 (or maybe 8) decks, dealer hits soft 17, double after split allowed, surrender not allowed, re-splitting aces not allowed. The house edge under these rules is 0.64%. In the high-limit room the rules are the same except the dealer stands on a soft 17 and re-splitting aces is allowed, for a house edge of 0.38%.  I should mention a WoV forum member mentioned there is a double-deck game in the high-limit room.  Please await a confirmation on that. 

Craps: 3-4-5x odds. Stingy field bet that pays 2 to 1 on a 12.

Roulette: Double-zero, including in the high limit room. House edge of 5.26%

Video Poker

The Circa has a surprisingly skimpy number of video poker machines. In fact, there are very few upright machines.  Most video poker availability is on bartop games.  They seem very consistent with their pay tables.  Other than the high limit room, every game was progressive, with the following base pay tables.  Numbers in parenthesis are the return without considering the value of the progressive contribution.

• Bonus Poker — 10-8-5-3-1 (94.18%)
• Double Bonus Poker — 9-6-5 (97.81%)
• Double Double Bonus Poker — 9-5 (97.87%)
• Deuces Wild — 25-16-13 (96.77%)
• Bonus Poker Deluxe — 8-6 (98.49%)
• Triple Double Bonus — 9-5 (97.02%)

A forum member claims there is at least one 8-5 Bonus Poker (99.18%) machine on the main casino floor. I will look more carefully for that my next visit.

Here are the offerings for the single-line games in the high-limit room, which had a denomination range of $2 to $100.  As you can see, the returns are generally WORSE than on the main casino floor. 

• Bonus Poker — 30-6-5 (96.18%)
• Double Bonus Poker — 9-6-4 (96.38%)
• Double Double Bonus Poker — 8-5 (96.79%)
• Deuces Wild — 25-16-13 (96.77%)
• Bonus Poker Deluxe — 7-5 (96.25%)
• Triple Double Bonus — 8-5 (95.97%)
• Deuces Wild Bonus — 12-4-3-2 (96.22%)
• White Hot Aces — 6-5 (96.39%)
• Jacks or Better — 7-5 (96.15%)
• Joker Poker (kings or better) — 15-7-5-3 (96.38%)

Video Keno

The following seemed to be the consistent keno pay tables all over the main casino floor. These are all for the pick-8.

• Spot Keno — 2-12-98-1652-10000 (92.31%)
• Caveman Keno (8x) — 1-2-5-68-200-1000 (92.20%)
• Cleopatra Keno — 3-10-60-200-1000 (92.08%)

Following are the video keno games in the high limit room, which offer denominations of $2 and $5.  Much like video poker, the odds are generally WORSE in the high limit rooom. 

• Spot Keno — 2-12-98-1652-10000 (92.31%)
• Caveman Keno (8x) — 1-2-5-65-155-1000 (90.36%)
• Cleopatra Keno — 3-10-56-180-1000 (90.15%)
• Power Keno — 1-2-6-21-100-500 (89.65%)

Reeled Slots

As always, the return of reeled slots is almost impossible to quantify. However, as I always say, there is a strong correlation between how tight the video poker and video game are set, which are quantiable, to the slots.  I would rate the video poker and video keno a C-, which should tell you something about the slots.  

 

I meant to see what the expiration date on slot vouchers, but forgot.  

Race and Sports

There can be little debate that the crown jewel of the Circa is the race and sports book. It is stadium style with three stories of screens to watch a host of different video feeds.  On the side of the room are long lists of bets available.  The lines are the same "Circa" lines as found at the Golden Gate and D.  Here is some information about the odds.

• Golf — Player match-ups have 20-cent lines
• Futures — Futures have about a 19.5% house edge.
• (American) Football — 20-cent lines. Money lines are fairly close together, for example +150/-170, +200/-235, +430/-550.
• Soccer — Win/lose/draw bets carry about a 5.5% house edge

The expiration date on tickets is 365 days, which I applaud.

More Images

Nice to see a Vegas institution is back, the Golden Gate 99¢ shrimp cocktail. Unfortunately, it's only available at that price from 3 to 5AM, as seen in the fine print. Tricking the customer with details in the fine print -- another Vegas institution.

Rooftop pool picture Courtesy of MDawg